rite, wherein, after mature deliberation, the Pope, as Universal Doctor and Supreme Head of the Church, ex cathedrá, pronounces that such a servant or servants of God practised during life the seven theological and cardinal virtuesnamely, faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance, in an heroic degree; that both before, and after their death, their extraordinary sanctity was confirmed by miracles-that therefore they are at present in the enjoyment of heavenly bliss, and that consequently their memories may be venerated, and their intercession invoked by the faithful upon earth. But, before coming to this important decision, every circumstance of the saintly candidate's life is weighed with precision in the unerring scales of the sanctuary; and the miracles of reputed saints must be juridically proved to be genuine before the Congregation of Rites. To this venerable congregation appertain all_affairs connected with canonization.

Its tri

bunal is composed of twenty-six cardinals, and of an indefinite number of learned prelates and divines; it has also its judges, counsellors, and notaries. It moreover employs interpreters of foreign languages, and cites physicians, surgeons, and the most celebrated men of science, to give their opinions. The depositions of interested parties are carefully examined, and suspicious witnesses are cross-questioned by one of its law officers. called the Promoter of Faith, who is also sometimes nick-named the Devil's Advocate. Indeed, had not the supreme pontiff, to whom an appeal was made, overruled the objection, it is said that the canonisation of St. Joseph a Capertino would have been prevented, by one of these consistorial jurisconsults animadverting upon the saint's habit of taking snuff, which the learned counsel contended was too great an indulgence for a man, who, it was presumed, had renounced every luxurious superfluity."

"After a long protracted process in the subordinate legal courts, after prayers have been repeatedly offered up in all churches to obtain light and counsel from on high, after the opinions and suffrages of the cardinals, bishops, and divines, expressly assembled in several public and private preparatory consistories have been collected, the Pope, like another Moses amid the elders of Israel, rises again to implore the Divine assistance, and at length promulgates his sovereign decree

for the canonisation of the already beatified candidates.

"On the day fixed for the grand event, the ceremonial commences with a solemn procession, emblematical of our mortal pilgrimage towards the portals of eternity." Here follows a minute description of the immense retinue of sacerdotal and military pomp which the Man of Sin calls forth on his grand occasions of delusion, when," with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, he prepares to show himself that he is God." The gorgeous procession we, however, omit, till we come to the Pope himself, who, under a superb canopy of state, "is carried in a species of currule chair, on the shoulders of the palafrenieri, vested in liveries of scarlet silk. The canopy is alternately supported by eight youths, selected from the English, Irish, German, and other colleges. The pontiff is moreover surrounded by the staff officers of his noble guard, together with other civil and military members of his household." Behind the Pope follow many other officials and dignitaries. "On reaching the portico of St. Peter's, the Father of the Faithful is borne aloft into the church, through four-fold lines of white-robed Levites, holding lighted torches; and his chair of state, accompanied by an additional retinue, is still followed, as heretofore, by two chamberlains, bearing flabelli, or large fans of ostrich feathers. The procession halts in the centre of the nave, near the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, where the Holy Father remains for a brief space, to offer up his supplicating adoration to the giver of all good gifts." After much more ceremony, tedious to read and still more tedious to behold, "the Holy Father, seated upon his throne, receives from his court the customary homage. After making a low obeisance, the cardinals kiss his hand-patriarchs, archbishops and bishops kiss his knee-prelates, and others of inferior rank, kneel and kiss his foot. At the conclusion of this ceremony the cardinal, solicitor of the process, approaches the throne, accompanied by the master of the ceremonies, and a consistorial advocate. The latter, on his knees, presents to the pontiff, in Latin, the following petition: :- Most Holy Father, the most Reverend Lord Cardinal N., here present, urgently requests your holiness to inscribe the already beatified N. N. in the catalogue of Saints of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in order that they may be venerated as such

by the faithful of Christ.' To this petition the Pope's secretary-to-princes re

turns

an answer, by stating that his Holiness, in consideration of the importance of the demand, wishes, before coming to a final decision, that the Divine assistance be implored through the intercession of the Virgin Mary and all the Saints. The Holy Father then kneels down upon the FALDISTORIUM,* while the litanies of the saints are chaunted by the chaplains of the papal choir." After other ceremonies, the Pope declares that it is requisite to invoke the Holy Ghost; on which they begin chaunting the "Veni Creator Spiritus"-then the farce is repeated of pressing the Pope to canonise :---" the consistorial advocate, kneeling at the foot of the throne, pronounces aloud the following words: 'The most Reverend Lord Cardinal N., here present, urgently, more urgently, most urgently (instanter, instantius, instantissime), requests your Holiness to enrol among the Saints of our Lord Jesus Christ the beatified N. N., in order that they may be venerated as such by all the faithful of Christ.' The secretary replies to this reiterated demand, that the Holy Father being now convinced that the solicited canonisation is agreeable to God, is about to make known his definitive decision. The Pontiff then solemnly pronounces the following sentence :--

"In honour of the Holy and undivided Trinity, in exaltation of the Catholic faith, and to extend the Christian religion, by the authority of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, of the Holy Apostles, Peter and Paul, and of our own, after due deliberation, and repeated prayers for Divine aid, and by the advice of our venerable brethren, the cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, the patriarchs and archbishops of this city, we define and decree N. N. N. to be saints, and enrol them among the number of the saints, ordering the Universal Church, henceforth, with pious devotion, to venerate their memory on the day of their birth. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.'"

They then sing Te Deum, and a cardinal invokes the new saints "Orate pro

* The faldistorium is the favourite faldstool of the Puseyites: we have already described it in speaking of the trinkets of that sect. Dr. Hook considers the absence of the faldstool an infallible mark of corrupted Christianity.

nobis, Sancti N. N. N.," to which the choir responds "Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi." The Pope then sings the collect appointed for the new saints, and their names are inserted in the Confiteor. All this is followed by "the offertory," or the ceremony of offering to the Pope the oblation of wax torches, bread, wine, pigeons, doves, and other birds, with a purse containing twenty-five pieces of money; after which the canonisation is concluded.

Such is this rite of blasphemy! and by this rite five new deities have been added to the crowded pantheon of Rome. Their names are Alfonso Maria Liguori, born at Naples, A. D. 1690, died 1787--in 1816 he was beatified by Pius VII.; Francia di Girolomo, of Naples, born 1642, died 1716---beatified by Pius VII. in 1806; John Joseph Della Croce, born at Ischia, near Naples, 1654, died 1734 ---beatified in 1789; Pacificus di San Severino, born at Sapeda, in 1652, died a Franciscan in 1734; Veronica Giuliani, born in the Duchy of Urbino, A. D. 1660, died a nun of the Capuchin order, in 1727. "She was favoured with the most extraordinary gifts and graces, and was beatified in 1804, by Pius VII."

A religion in which scenes of this description can take place, cannot be considered a representation, even the most corrupt of the Christian faith--it is entirely another religion; and the use of christian names and phrases only serves to make the separation more complete; just as the insertion of christian names and phrases in the ceremonies of the Hindoo religion, would have no other effect than to make a true Christian feel a deeper degree of horror and aversion, when he discovered the holy language of Scripture prostituted to purposes of idolatry.

It is, we believe, scarcely known in this country, that the reigning monarch of Russia, the Emperor Nicholas, has himself, by his own high authority as supreme head of the church of Russia, canonised a saint! but such is the case! and the person so canonised was the Chaplain of Peter the Great, who refused to hold any intercourse with his imperial master, when, in imitation of the fashion then prevailing in Europe, he decorated one of his imperial gardens with the statues of the heathen gods and godesses.

The reverend Chaplain, true to the well-known aversion of the Greek Church to images, declared that his imperial

master had encouraged the sin of idolatry; and as he continued firm in his interpretation of the ornaments set up by the Emperor, the people considered the Chaplain a confessor of their faith, and ever afterwards honoured his memory as that of a Saint. The present Emperor was advised by his ministers to humour the feelings of the people, and to establish on a sure basis their respect to him as head of the church, by commanding the canonisation of the sturdy chaplain. The Emperor is said to have laughed at the proposal when first made to him; but afterwards, perceiving its policy, as part of the mystery of state, he convened a synod of the ecclesiastical dignitaries, and commanded them to proceed to the canonisation, which was completed accordingly--and the Chaplain is now a saint in the Russian calendar, by the will of the Emperor.

And these things are done in the nineteenth century; when we are told the world is so adding to its intellectual strength, as to be able, ere long, to cast off the bonds of superstition!

The Pope, however, asserts that he canonises the saints "by his own authority, and that of Peter and Paul;"his own authority will do all that it can, but Peter and Paul will not help him : for what says Paul? he does not tell "the saints," to whom he wrote, that their place in glory would be obtained by their having "practised, during life, the seven theological and cardinal virtues, namely, faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, in a heroic degree;" but, he tells the Romans that they are 66 beloved of God, called to be saints, or elect saints" (Rom. i. 7); and these "elect saints" were not "to reign in life" by a decree of a Pope, who should decide a hundred years after their death, that they had merited glory by their own good works; but an abundance of mercy, "and a gift of righteousness, must first be received by them," and then "they should reign in life by one Jesus Christ" (Rom. v. 17).

The saints of Rome, in the days of Paul, were not to be judged worthy of taking the office of mediator in heaven, by a "congregation of rites," inquiring, and cross-examining witnesses, and hearing the pleadings of counsellors, pro and con, and taking evidence of the miracles performed by the bones, and old clothes, of the said saints, after their death; but their judgmen' 's to be at the tribunal

of God alone; and as he pronounced them not guilty, so were they to be esteemed; and, through grace, being thus acquitted, were also to be deemed saints, not for their own righteousness, but for the righteousness of the risen and justified Head of the Church, whose justification was proved by his resurrection, and accounted, by grace, the property of all that believe in him; "for he was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification," so that the saints of Rome stood in righteousness in the days of Paul, on a foundation not known in Rome in these days; for this was their standing:-"Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is ever at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us" (Rom. viii. 34); a doctrine, which if declared in St. Peter's Church, would strike at the very root of Popery, and make the tiara tremble on the brows of the Man of Sin. Moreover, the glory of the saints in Rome came not from the works. of man, but from God's eternal purpose and predestination, "for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren; moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified" (Rom. viii. 29, 30). But if the Pope should ever search the Scriptures, and, alarmed with the heresies of Paul, betake himself to Peter, what would he find in the epistle of the first Pope? that "the saints are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father" (1 Pet. i. 2); and that "Christ suffered for their sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring them near to God;" and that Christ "his own self bare their sins in his own body on the tree, that they being dead to sins might live to righteousness-by whose stripes they are also healed."

In one word, the saints of God are saved by grace, through faith, and that not of themselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast (Eph. ii. 8, 9). The saints of Popery are placed in heaven by judgment of the Pope and his Cardinals, as a reward of their supposed good works, and to repay them for the seven cardinal and theological virtues, exercised in a heroic degree.

66

THE NAVAL AND MILITARY BIBLE

SOCIETY.

THE Naval and Military Bible Society was one on the list of the "May Meetings" this season. Of the speeches which it produced, the following are extracts :Captain Clark, of the Hon. East India Company, moved the third resolu tion, as follows:- That this meeting, confident that moral as well as physical strength should constitute the defence of a Christian empire, witnesses, with heartfelt pleasure, the continued facilities enjoyed by the society for circulating the Holy Scriptures among the seamen of her Majesty's navy, and sailors generally; as also the effective distribution to the entire British army: and, relying upon the divine promise, that His word shall not return unto Him void, they would thank God for the past, and take courage for the future.' That audience, he said, might not be aware that attempts were made to poison the minds of many in the army, both with infidel and with revolutionary principles. Those men knew not God, and that he was the only true defence of nations. Those who had designs upon them, therefore, tried to induce the belief that there was no God or that they were not accountable to him; and having induced them to shake off their allegiance to God, they hoped to induce them also to shake off their allegiance to man. Thus they put them off their guard, and prevented them from being subject to rulers, not for wrath, but for conscience' sake. But if bad men were so active, should it be said that the children of this world were in their generation wiser than the children of light? (Hear, hear.) No; let them be active; let them rather aim to give them that balm of Gilead which should heal all the wounds of their fallen and corrupt nature, and especially those wounds occasioned by the poisoned arrows of infidelity. (Hear, hear.) Proofs were daily furnished that the scheme of supplying soldiers and sailors with the word of God was not Utopian, but that they themselves were most anxious to receive that word. It was well said by one Of a truth, Christian soldiers in barracks are like bushes always burning, and not consumed.' Christians should be careful and anxious to give them the book which taught them that the wages of sin was death; and also, that where sin abounded, grace had much more

abounded. In India it was probable that the soldiers might be engaged in perilous conflicts with men in the flesh; and should they be allowed to go forth with arms which could only spread mischief, and bloodshed, and death? Were they only to be distinguished from idolaters by greater skill and courage? If they were to wield temporal weapons, let them also be furnished with the sword of the spirit-the weapon which should carry peace, and joy, and life, amidst the warfare and the conflict of the flesh. Let them prove the harbingers of that blessed period, when swords should be beaten into ploughshares, and spears into pruning-hooks; when the nations of the earth should not learn war any more. Was he speaking of things which could not be? Might not soldiers and sailors be heralds of that kingdom which was peace, and righteousness, and joy in the Holy Ghost? At least, they might labour in humble dependence upon God. They might send out the word of life, and they might hope for the blessing bestowed on those who laboured in the vineyard of the Lord. They would not labour in vain. Much good had already been done in India. God was working a mighty work in the army there. He himself could look back to many delightful evenings, in which his brother officers and their ladies joined with a number of the private soldiers in lifting up their hearts in praise and in prayer to Almighty God. (Hear, hear.) Often they had no other means of grace; and some of the men who engaged in prayer proved, by the richness and scriptural nature of their expressions, that they had drank deep of the fountain of life, and that they had imbibed something of the mind which was in Christ their Lord. And were such men milk-sops? Were they mere meditative, praying No; they were as diligent, as attentive, as valiant, as any that could be found. When off the march, they would take a turn in the fields; with the Bible in their hands; and there they found that God was with them. Such things were most encouraging, and should induce them to furnish soldiers with spiritual arms. They were surrounded with difficulties; they were exposed to the jeers and scoffs of their comrades and their officers, who were, in most instances, however, constrained to confess that they could find nothing against them, except as touching the law of their God.

men?